Illustrated books, book art and artists' books hold an exceptional place in European culture, intimately linked to the history of European artistic, social and political developments.

This open access book focuses on a critical time in the history of illustration in Europe, from 1850 to 1960, and explores the transition from narrative-centred illustrations to the various forms of independent book art. In this context the specific role of illustration (as content, adaptation, interpretation and independent discourse and art form) is examined alongside the changes in modern Europe that allowed illustration to become a fully-fledged artistic form and a propelling force in the literature and society of the time.

In a series of thematic chapters, the book investigates how this transition operated and explores the multi-layered artistic and social influences that allowed such a shift. It scrutinises the technical and community evolutions that influenced - and were influenced by - the developments of illustration. It shows how such changes opened the door to further independence for books in terms of (artistic) production and distribution. The second part of the volume questions what images say about the reception of a specific text in a particular historical, political and social environment. Finally, the book focuses on the world-building power of illustration, the narrative independence of illustration and the emergence of artists' books. Readers are presented with a range of case studies throughout the book, analysed with interdisciplinary theories and methods, encouraging consideration of these exceptional artworks in new ways.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC-BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Fiep Westendorp Foundation (the Netherlands) and the Maastricht University Open Access Book Fund (the Netherlands).